The Give Blog

The New Face of Hunger

In the Wednesday On the Ground story this week, please look for our related feature on an American foodbank.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Washington Post asks whether the Gates and others are obligated to give

THE QUESTION

Giving enough?

Do financially successful people have an obligation to help those in need? Are Bill and Melinda Gates,  by their actions, encouraging others to step up? How much should the rich be expected to give?

View the answers given by several panelists in the Washington Post’s story

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday.  It’s all about spending time with family and friends.  For us, the day after Thanksgiving will not be much different.  We’re sharing leftovers with friends and watching the Illinois-Cincinnati football game.  (Illinois is our current employer, and Cincinnati is Suja’s former employer so we really can’t lose one way or the other).

We’re not shopping the day after Thanksgiving.  We’re actually bucking tradition completely by not shopping then or anytime before Christmas (the holiday celebrated by our families).  Future blogs will talk about these types of choices that we are making to try to consciously live and give.

Go Fighting Illini (and Bearcats) and Happy Thanksgiving…

 
 
 

 

On the Ground: Elizabeth Kalimbuka and The Hunger Project

We chose The Hunger Project as one of the charities to which we will contribute in the $50,000 challenge. THP is a global, non-profit, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger. It has received a 4 star (the best) rating from Charity Navigator and an "A" from The American Institute of Philanthropy (referred to here as Global Hunger Project).  The following describes a person helped by THP:

Elizabeth Kalimbuka is a participant in The Hunger Project's pilot microfinance program for people living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi. After participating in several workshops and trainings, including business management training, Elizabeth took out a small loan of about US$75 in 2006. Since then, she has taken out and repaid several more loans and now has two profitable businesses--animal husbandry and brick making. She has lifted herself and her family out of poverty and proudly declares "I am now able to buy enough food to feed my family!"  Here is Elizabeth's story in her words...

My name is Elizabeth Kalimbuka, and I am a widow . . .  born on the 16th of July, 1963. I tested HIV-positive in 2004, . . . After undergoing business management training, I took a loan of K10,000 (about US$75) in June 2006 and started a butchery business. I bought the first cow at about K7,000 (US$55), and used K2,000 (US$16) to pay laborers and for market rentals and other utilities. I made a profit of K3,000.00 (US$24) after selling the meat (30% profit on capital in four days). After some cycles, I made enough capital and I was able to change my business to buying live cows, fattening them and then selling  them live. This is more lucrative and less involved. . . . I am now able to buy enough food to feed my family. Currently I have 10 bags of maize and one bag of rice [the next harvest season was just four months away at this time, so villagers only needed a maximum of eight bags of maize]. . . . I will always be grateful to THP-Malawi for the trust they had in us, people living with HIV. The training in business management helped me to manage my loan very well. Of course, it has not been easy going all along, but I am glad to tell you that I managed to repay the whole loan plus interest. I am glad that I am one of the shining stars here in Nchalo and am urging other microfinance initiatives to follow what THP-Malawi did: offering loans to people who are HIV-positive. Thank you very much. Read the entire story.  

 Give to The Hunger project now and we will match your donation!

Our Conscious Living: Where It All Started

We met on a bus that was going to the Johannesburg airport. We had been on a trip with 300 people from Cincinnati, who were doing volunteer work in Mamelodi, a South African township of over a million people.  Beginning with our first conversation on the bus, we talked about how we wanted to live.  We both had this nagging feeling inside that we wanted to live differently.

During the week-long trip, Suj had tried not to spend much money on souvenirs with the hope that she could give away the money that she brought with her. The day that we met, we gave away Suj’s leftover rand (South African money) at the airport.  It’s sort of funny that at the same time that we were giving away money, Suj’s mom was buying more souvenirs. A very giving person, her mom wanted to buy presents for her grandkids and her friends, but she even wanted to borrow Suj’s leftover rand to do this. To be sure, Suj’s mom is an amazing person. On the trip to South Africa, at 76, she was one of the oldest people, and she worked hard as a nurse.  

We all have a difficult time, though, not consuming even when poverty is staring us in the face.  After a week among some of the poorest of the poor, Suj’s mom, Suj, me and others on the trip still were thinking about acquiring the next thing—to wear, to display or maybe even to give to someone else.  You go to a place like South Africa, and you kind of want to display that you were there.  Suj bought a rugby jersey, and I bought a streamer for the table, among other things.

While Suj did a better job not spending money in South Africa than I did (I’m more of a spender than Suj) we could both see that we could encourage each other, and this is where we started. At the airport, we picked out people who worked there to give away Suj’s money.  The pictures show Suj’s mom buying things at a South African market, and me outside one of the airport stores, where we started consciously living and giving.

 

Launching the Give Blog: Our $50,000 Challenge to You!

To celebrate the launch of this blog, with your help, we hope to give away $50,000 to five charities – The Hunger Project, The Grameen Foundation, Safe Passage, Catholic Charities USA and the Eastern Illinois Foodbank.  Beginning today through December 24, we will match contributions of up to $100 from new donors to these charities, and each charity can receive up to $10,000 from us.  (We will match up to $100 of new donations to each of the five charities such that a person who has not given to any of these charities in the past could be matched up to $500.)  So together, with your contributions, we can give $20,000 to each of these charities, or $100,000 to all five of them.  If you would like to participate, just email us stating the amount that you will donate and make the donation directly to the charity.  The charity will confirm that you are a new donor and the amount of your donation, and then we will match your contribution.  Thanks for considering a contribution.  Email us giveblog@gmail.com.

This blog is being launched to motivate ourselves and others to give away more money to charitable causes. We were in South Africa a few years ago, and we regularly saw people, including children, who just wanted food and clean water – nothing else.  The pic is of a woman and a child in the community where we were.  There are literally millions of people throughout the world who do not have these basic necessities of life, and lots of people face other problems, including not being able to find a job or shelter. With this blog, we are writing about how we can, on a daily basis, live our lives in such a way to enable us to give more.  In living this way thus far, we have felt much more fulfilled from giving than we did from consuming.

Each week on the blog, we will feature stories about our lives and others, and media relevant to the blog.  In Our Conscious Living on Tuesdays, we will share stories on how we try to live consciously to be able to give away more money. In On the Ground on Wednesdays, we will feature a story about a person who has been helped by a charity.  On Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays, we will feature news articles or other media relevant to giving.